The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1887-10-13

/ milan boy, on his way from
| Sunall, Illinois, to the old country, is
stretched on the one lounge in the low
dark room. His head is fearfully bat
tered and his right leg is fractured.
The other wounded man is James Nc
Coot, bartender of Boston, who, had
he not been passenger on the fated
train. would have been welcomed in
Chicago by his relatives, whom he has
not seen for years. His injuries are
for the most part internal, and are
Recovery rSs % is sver possible R He WAS WAS
able to tell of the awful
occurrence as follows: 81 was in the
passenger coach which was next to the
last car on the track. Just before mid
night went into the smoker which
was just ahead of our car, and chatted
for an hour, and came back to the
coach with young man who sat down
near me. That is the last I've seen or
expect to see of the poor fellow. Just
as l had stretched myself out to go
to sleep, and Just before closed my
eyes, there was an awful crash which,
God help me, / never want to hear
again. I could feel myself thrown vi
OleRtly toward the top of the car, and
then became insenSible. On the way
up l realized that all was confusion in
the car; that canes, valises and rods of
iron we're in the air about me. l must
have regained consciousness in a very
short time, for when awoke all was
darkness in the car and the horrible
shriekS and piercing walls of agony
almost deafened my ears. In the
end of the car farthest east
from me the stove was
overturned and the flames were just
starting to spread with magic-like IA
pidity. There was some sort of a new
To-, to En Nir.cJ
reaching from one to the other. The
flames leaped up the sides, and in less
time than can tell it, the gas was
burning the whole length of the coach
over our heads. 1 was Wedged between
two seats where could not move
limb of my body, and there with the
fire slowly creeping upon me was ter
rible sight. In the end Of the coach
near the fire, l could see lady
caught between the seats as 1
was. The fire slowly crept across the
car, she was soon envelOyed in flames
and then in agony, she burned before
my eyes. Just across from my seat l
noticed soon before the accident a ia
Their, his wife and daughter, 1 saw
them also crushed together and burned.
Just as the flames were blazing a foot
or two away from me man pulled me
into the aisle and said: Come to the
window He must have mistaken me
for some one else for the moment he
had looked closely at my face he drop
ped me and hurried through the win
dow, with an exclamation of evident
disappointment. 1 then painfully
crawled after him in safety.
This afternoon when the reporters,
who had been long delayed in reaching
KOutts, owing to the secretIveness OF
railroad officials, began at last to ar
rive, there was little in the aspect of
the village to indicate the calamity
that had so recently taken place. All
the dead bodies had been carefully re-
moved from sight. Only two of the
/ wounded were still in the village, and
the local employees were deaf and
| dumb to all seekers after information.
The Coroner had been obliged to go to
Huntington, over fifty miles distant,
| to obtain statement of witnesses, and
the villagers seemed wholly at sea re-
garding the extent of the disaster.
| About the only person able and willing
| to tell the details of the horror was DIR.
C. w. Mckee. The Doctor is a pros
| porous looking man of about
81 T Who 9i promptly I'll c. Tef sRaf ed
take handcar and go the scene of the
wreck, three miles from his residence.
DR.. Mckee rendered noble services.
| He had scant time to give his eX-
perience in detail, but stated that to
| the best of his knowledge, it would not
be oVerstating facts to say the collision
| had cost the lives of fully thirty. 1t
was shortly after 1 O'Clock this morn
| ing when he reached the wreck, and he
Immediately began to give his services
| to the wounded. Those who were bad
| lY hurt when the crash came, he says,
must have had little chance
| for their lives, so quickly had the cars
| taken fire, and SO thorough was the
work of the flames. AS an illustration
/ of the destruction, and the difficulty of
arriving at correct idea of its magni-
/ tude, the Doctor said probably not a
| soul would have been made aware of
the all but total wiping out of the
| Miller family of six had not their boy
been saved. DR.. Mckee stated that
only nine bodies had been re-
covered, and they were so
badly SCARED as to be almost
beyond recognition. The nine were as
follows: The Miller family, of Dundee,
| father, mother, two brothers and a
girl their IA year old boy, Herman,
will probably die also); DIR. Perry, of
DR.. Perry's daughter, aged IL; a young
Irish lady. Superintendent Parsons,
of the Chicago 81 Atlantic was seen
late in the afternoon gloomily pacing
the station platform. Hewas extremely
taciturn and was very sure
be found under the wreck. Only
ously. He admitted no hagman had
been sent back from the passenger
train when a stop was made. He said
| the train depended upon symaphore
light fully 200 feet in the rear of where
the stop was made. The conductor of
| the train had pulled the cord and this
| light when he stepped from the train.
This would throw the glare of a red
| signal on the track. The night, how
the freight must have failed to see the
| signal. Superintendent Parsons thought
the accident would have been a very
| ordinary one had not the stove in the
| sleeper upset. That caused the de-
struction of the sleeper two coaches and
| baggage car, and in the main was
doubtless the cause Of the loss of life.
said, reached the scene from Val
paraiso about 11:30 a. M, and
| after moving the debris and making
some inquiries, had found il
necessary to go to Huntington in
search of witnesses. The wounded.
Mr.. Parsons explained, had been taken
there as early as possible, and the
1 pdSSCISCI6 WIZ WCIO W II1C
number of twenty-five, had been start
ed to their destinations without delay.
| CHICAGO, Oct. 11.-Several passen-
gers, who were on the Inflated train.
i arrived in the city this afternoon.
One of them, q gentleman from Taun-
ton, Mass, who was on his way home.
was sitting in the first car asleep with
his head Tonga satcheI. 1.-THE first ]
knew he said, 81 heard a
i 81 2vaI -
seemed shattered and the pieces
were flying past me. The next knew
I found myself almost buried In the
ruins, and they seemed to keep piIing
up. I tried to extricate myself, and
i found was near window. It was
ali dark, and all around me were yeIls
and groans, and the blackneSs made II
fearful. did not seem to be hurt be-
yond being shaken mp. so called foI
help out OF the window. Some man,
don't know who, helped me out, and
then turned in and helped to get the
u others ra4f Isff1a vuhile after eyol